The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Live blues returning to Connecticut
As the region continues to open more shows are popping up. If you are looking forward to hearing some live blues, you need to contact bands and venues. Many pages have not been brought up to date, so it will need a little more time and work.
This cautious approach is taking time — but it is better than those states that had to close venues after opening them only to see a COVID-19 spike. Many events are outside, so weather is going to play a role.
Live blues continues in the state. Friday from noon to 2 p.m., John Cloonan will be at Heritage Park in Stamford. Also on Friday, the Rob Glassman Band with special guest Cheryl Tracy will be on the patio at Crystal Bees. The Brass Horse Café has a holiday weekend closer show with LB3 at 3 p.m. Sunday.·Also on Sunday, the Center Line duo are playing at Scotch Plains Tavern. JR Krauss and the Shakes will be in Winsted at East End Park by Northwestern Connecticut Community College, Thursday from 7 to 9 p.m.
Crystal Bees is hosting a Thursday Night Blues Jams on the Patio (and adjacent parking lot). It runs from 7-10 p.m. with the house band playing a set; then musicians sit in w band (bass rig and drums provided). This week Murray the Wheel band is the host band.
Drive-in concerts are happening around the state. If you have the connections it might be fun to give a classic blues or festival movie a showing.
Boston-area-based singer and piano player, Anthony
Geraci has a new CD, “Daydreams in Blue,” coming out July 10. Hewill be playing a special livestream show that evening. You can watch Geraci playing the Extended Play Sessions Fallout Shelter from the comfort of your own home. The show, which features singer Dennis Brennan, is free but online tips are most appreciated.
Eric Clapton and B.B. King first performed together in New York City in 1967. More than 30 years later, the two longtime friends joined forces to create a collection of all new studio recordings of blues classics and contemporary songs. The resulting album, “Riding with the King” was released in June 2000. More than 2 million copies sold, and the album won the 2000 Grammy Award for Best Traditional Blues Album.
To celebrate the 20th anniversary, the album was released in June, expanded and remastered. Two additional previously unreleased tracks have been added; the blues standard “Rollin’ & Tumblin’” and a cover of Willie Dixon’s “Let Me Love You Baby”. Both tracks were recorded during the original sessions and were mixed specially for this release.
Few people have had as profound an impact in music world as Quincy Jones. He’s a legendary composer and performer whose work has crossed multiple genres, races and media, a 30-time Grammy winner, including album of the year for 1989’s “Back on the Block.”
Using Qwest TV, the streaming channel dedicated to jazz, soul, funk and world music that he launched in 2017, Jones marked this year’s Juneteenth, with an initiative that will give schools around the United States, from kindergarten to college, free access to Qwest TV’s educational platforms.
“Kids in general today, especially in America, have no idea of the history of the music they are listening to,” he explains. “There is a direct line from jazz and the blues, be-bop to doo-wop to hip-hop, and everything in between that was born of them, from country and rock ‘n’ roll to pop. That is the beauty of Qwest TV. It is a platform where you can experience the origins of jazz, the blues and gospel music, and see and hear how it evolved into and influenced all types of music genres around the world.”
Grammy-nominated Brother Dege Legg (Quentin Tarantino’s Django Unchained) is one of the best-kept secrets in Louisiana; a musician, writer (Louisiana Press Award 2004, 2008), outsider artist, and heir to a long line of enigmatic characters born in the slaughterhouse of the Deep South. It’s a been a wild ride for this boy. Like the mad love child of Son House and William Faulkner, Legg has burned a colorful trail through the
Promised Land, working odd jobs (dishwasher, day laborer, cabdriver, embedded journalist, homeless shelter employee), hitchhiking, studying philosophy, writing books, and experimenting with psychedelics - all while passionately championing the Deep South, but also clashing with its pecking orders, prejudices, and parochial narrow-mindedness. Brother Dege’s special 10-Year Anniversary Silver and Lead Colored Vinyl Pressing of Folk Songs of the American Longhair is limited to only 200 copies and is out and available.
Dr. G and the Believers write, “It’s been a quiet couple of months for Dr. G and the Believers, and all of us! We hope that you are all doing well and staying healthy amidst all this disruption. For a dose of some good blues music, here’s our set at the New London Blues on Bank Festival from last June. Give a listen! It’s a full hour, so let it play while you do your thing! https:// www.youtube.com/ watch?v=GYc4yachb0&t=1563s
Your questions or comments should be sent to Domenic Forcella at TWBlus@aol.com.